A Synoptical Grammar

of the

Micmac Language

Tseems a fitting time, in connection with the publication of the Micmac Dictionary, to also publish an outline study of the structure of that language. This grammar is therefore brief, where volumes might be written, as it has been felt that there is a place for such, while an exhaustive treatment would be uncalled for; so, though conscious of unfitness to cope with such atask, this essay is submitted as a digest of rather voluminous work upon the language; it is a per— sonal venture, as it was not contemplated by the Canadian Govern- ment when arranging to preserve Rand’s years of labour in dictionary form.

“ The only impeccable authors are those who never wrote,” says Hazlitt, but it is everywhere acknowledged that he treads on most uncertain ground who writes about an aboriginal language after the many processes of disintegration and decay have made marked inroads upon it. One must be content to cobble with scraps, to cement rubble into masonry, or. borrowing still further from native imagery, to conjure up a symmetrical garden from wild-weed—seeds and debris; but the organizing process must become ever more diflicult as the years pass, and the task is cheerfully undertaken.

Perhaps the consideration of first importance with regard to the language is that there was a standard of expression long ago accepted amongst the Micmacs; this standard was necessarily little more than a composite walking vocabulary, and was referred to as “ The way